Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced a lawsuit against Media Matters for America Monday, accusing it of “fraudulent business practices.”
Bailey accused the left-wing organization in a Monday release of failing to comply with an investigation launched in December. Bailey filed the lawsuit in state court Monday, saying the group used fraud to raise money from Missouri residents.
“Media Matters has used fraud to solicit donations from Missourians in order to trick advertisers into removing their advertisements from X, formerly Twitter, one of the last platforms dedicated to free speech in America,” Bailey’s filingsays. “Media Matters has pursued an activist agenda in its attempt to destroy X, because they cannot control it. And because they cannot control it, or the free speech platform it provides to Missourians to express their own viewpoints in the public square, the radical ‘progressives’ at Media Matters have resorted to fraud to, as Benjamin Franklin once said, mark X ‘for the odium of the public, as an enemy to the liberty of the press.’”
?BREAKING: I am filing suit against Media Matters to force them to turn over documents regarding their solicitation of donations to bully advertisers into pulling out of X, the last platform dedicated to free speech in America.
THREAD: pic.twitter.com/tSRXIpyJ1h
— Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) March 25, 2024
“Missourians will not be manipulated by ‘progressive’ activists masquerading as news outlets, and they will not be defrauded in the process,” Bailey continued.
Bailey is seeking a court order to force Media Matters to produce information related to the investigation launched in December, and is seeking documents and information on Missouri residents who donated to the group since Jan. 1, 2023, according to a demand letter.
“Investigative Demand CID No. 24-10 requests information relevant to whether Media Matters has engaged in or is engaging in any merchandising practices declared to be unlawful by section 407.020 with regard to Media Matters’ fraudulent manipulation of data on X.com (formerly known as Twitter),” Bailey’s filing said.
The court documents also claimed that the left-wing group has declared it would not cooperate with probes.
“Media Matters has expressed its intent not to comply with CIDs like this one,” Bailey’s filing says. “For example, the State of Texas served on Media Matters a virtually identical civil investigative demand in December of 2023, which Media Matters refused to comply with and instead filed a lawsuit to block compliance and disclosure of information and materials.”
